Every part of "The Sims 2" has come with its own weirdness and from what we reported about three months ago, every EP is going to have its own weirdness. We were given ghosts and aliens with the original game and with "Uni", we were able to get zombies. With Nightlife, we have a woman with special abilities and the ability for your sims to live the life vampiric.

In this part of the review, we meet the gypsy matchmaker and have our own interview with a vampire.

I recall a gypsy woman,
Silver spangles in her eyes.
Ivory skin against the moonlight,
And the taste of life’s sweet wine

~ Don Williams

I should point out that the term "gypsy" can be as offensive to the Roma in the same way that the term "eskimo" is to the Inuit population of Canada. However, for the purpose of this section of the review, I will use the ingame terms and hope that nobody is offended.

Many of the European readers will have had encounters with gypsy women calling at the door, trying to sell clothes pegs, trinkets and even predict the future if their palms are crossed with silver. Perhaps I didn't cross their palms with enough silver as their predictions of how my lovelife would develop was not very accurate.

Anyway, all of your sim households will get a visit from the gypsy matchmaker who looks as though she could be a refugee from the "Magic Town" of TS1 and seems to be competing with Mrs. Crumplebottom for "Least likely to win Miss Simworld 2006". She will introduce herself and tell you of how she can help sort out the lovelife of your sims. When not engaged in conversation or conducting business transactions, she spends a lot of her time polishing her crystal ball.

Although not the sort of person your average sim would like to take on a date herself, this matchmaker can be very useful indeed helping to kickstart a flagging or non-existant simlovelife and even help with bringing a state of mortality back to your vampiric sims. She is a new "service" profession and can be called to come over and help you out.

Firstly, you can ask her to arrange a blind date for you. After all, she is a matchmaker. The quality of this date - compatibility of astrology, aspirations and TO/Os - depends upon the amount of money you pay. If you don't cross her palm with enough simoleons, prepare to be dating someone completely incompatible and have a date from hell.

Secondly, you can buy a love potion from her. Not Love Potion No.9, it's Love Potion 8.5. Costing §350 per shot, you can buy more than one shot at a time. However, there is no discount for a bulk purchase. This augments your sim's attractiveness to his/her preferred gender but does not make them irresistible. Once it wears off, then they're back to using their own wiles and talents to get their relationship to progress.

Thirdly, you can buy Vamprocillin-D, which is a potion to revert you back to being a mortal if you have become a vampire. Apart from cheating, this is the only way you can regain a healthy skin tone and the ability to go out in the sunlight without any risk of combusting.

In my opinion, this woman can be very useful indeed. Don't underestimate her.

Hey gypsy woman
(hey hey hey gypsy woman)
Look in your crystal ball
And tell me where my baby’s gone

~ Rick Nelson